Abdulah: Dissolved EDAB was working on pan plan, Carnival assessment

David Abdulah,
PHOTO BY LINCOLN HOLDER

Plans for the steel band industry and an economic impact assessment of Carnival were among the initiatives by the recently dissolved Economic Development Advisory Board (EDAB), reported former member and Movement for Social Justice leader David Abdulah.

"The country will be poorer for that."

According to reports, the Cabinet-appointed EDAB was dissolved by Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley who wrote to the members thanking them for their service.

Abdulah in a telephone interview on Friday said it was not clear what was going to replace the EDAB and it was assumed after Farrell's resignation the Prime Minister would have appointed a new chairman or additional members so the work of the board could have continued. He added the board was in limbo and it was not clear what was happening and this was the main reason he had resigned. He said the members did not receive any money and did not wish to be remunerated but it was purely public service.

"The work of the EDAB is necessary. The type of work we were doing will not now be picked up by anybody else. Quite clearly there will be a gap in the strategic and longer-term policy development which the country requires urgently."

He reported the EDAB had been working on plans regarding innovation, the steel band industry, creative industries, port development and had developed pillars for economic diversification. He also reported there was project underway on the economic impact assessment on public spending for Carnival.

"Some strategic work the board had developed and we don't know what will become of that."